1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to displays such as those used to provide digital signage, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for enhancing backlighting levels (or illumination levels) and/or content provided (e.g., display content or displayed content) with digital signs (or signage) including, but not limited to, digital signage in which a display device or source of the content is camouflaged or disguised to limit or eliminate detection by a viewer (e.g., a translucent texture layer, a thematic overlay, a monitor-camouflaging sheet, or the like may be positioned over a monitor or display screen to hide its presence to viewers).
2. Relevant Background
In many settings, information and images are continuously being presented to viewers or people passing by a location. For example, shopping malls and airport terminals are filled with displays providing information and advertisements. Many of these displays are built up around conventional television monitors and displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display devices. These displays have become a standard tool for advertisement, reprogrammable signage, information stations, and menu boards (which together may be called “digital signage”).
One of the reasons these display devices have become ubiquitous is the ease of changing content and/or messaging on the display quickly and effortlessly, which may equate to reduced costs, efficiencies in providing new and changing content, and up-to-date information. Further, the costs of LCDs and other display devices have continued to decrease over time while the size of such displays can range from very small screens to many square feet so that these devices are desirable and useful in many business models.
However, in many settings, the use of conventional displays such as an LCD is undesirable. For example, theme parks and other settings such as restaurants often would prefer not to use an LCD or similar device due to the conventional television (TV)-based aesthetics. These settings may have taken considerable effort to provide a thematic decorative scene and simply placing an LCD or similar display in these spaces would spoil the desired effect. For example, a television simply looks out of place in a colonial village or in a wizard's store front. Similarly, it would not be theme-appropriate to use an LCD as a menu board in a “wild west” restaurant or in a renaissance fair booth.
To address these problems, digital signage systems have been developed that provide a thematic or camouflaging overlay over a digital display such as an LCD to provide eye-catching digital signage. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,013,515, issued on Apr. 21, 2015 and incorporated herein in its entirety, teaches a system that combines an emissive or transmissive display with a thematic overlay to hide or disguise the presence of the display by setting the display's illumination levels to blend its output with diffuse reflection of environmental light off the thematic overlay.
In this way, the output of the display (e.g., an LCD or other display device) can appear to be writing, artwork, or the like on or in the surface of the thematic overlay, and this overlay may appear to be a chalkboard, a piece of wallpaper, a wood, stone, or other material wall, and so on to fit into a particular display environment to appear “natural” to observers or viewers of this digital signage. The effect provided by such digital signage systems has been received with a great deal of excitement by developers and users of digital signage as it transforms mundane digital signage into a display that is surprising and eye catching.
With increased use of digital signage such as emissive and/or transmissive displays blended with diffuse reflection, a number of problems with their installation and extended use have been identified that may reduce the effectiveness of these display systems or at least reduce the eye-catching ability of such digital signage. For example, one difficulty with deploying such digital signage has been that setup and maintenance can require relatively careful light balancing, e.g., balancing the illumination level of the display device and light in the environment. The effect involves projecting content from a display through a semi-opaque overlay such that front lighting reflects off the overlay material so as to hide the presence of the display when it is off but to allow the display to overpower or match the front lighting when it is turned on or illuminated.
Balancing the emissive, transmissive, and/or reflective components of light observed by the viewer has typically been done manually by manipulating ambient light and display brightness (e.g., changing the illumination level of the LCD or other transmissive or emissive display). This may be effective in applications where the environmental lighting does not change or can be tightly controlled, but there are many applications where light levels in the viewer space change over time (e.g., an outdoor digital sign may be used over the day with a wide range of ambient light). A light sensor can be used to measure illumination levels or brightness of ambient light and the display may be operated in response to vary its illumination level. However, the initial tuning or settings for these adjustments typically have not taken into account component aging and other environmental factors. Additionally, conventional light sensors do not provide any or adequate resolution of a number of display operation parameters such as brightness and chromaticity to effectively control many display systems.
For example, the display's output based on an illumination level setting may vary with age (e.g., the output may become less bright over time at a particular illumination level setting). As another example, shadowing onto the display may develop over time or change throughout a day and such shadowing of the actual output from the display may not be sensed by a simple light sensor. As a further example, the thematic overlay may fade over time so as to become more translucent to light from the display such that previously well-balanced illumination levels for a particular ambient light level may now appear to be too bright (e.g., reveal the presence of the LCD or other emissive or transmissive display) while dust or other environmental objects may cause the thematic overlay to become less translucent such that the display's output may become out of balance over time (e.g., be at an illumination level that is too low to overpower or match diffuse reflection of ambient light off the thematic overlay's surfaces).
Hence, there remains a need for improved digital signage systems that can readily be changed and updated, such as menu boards, advertisements, information signage, and the like that are configured to eliminate the need for manual management or operation of the outputs of the display element(s) to suit varying environmental lighting conditions and/or changing physical characteristics of display components (e.g., changes due to aging of display components such as lower lighting output, changes in reflection characteristics of any overlaying elements, and so on).